2022 TEACH BETTER CONFERENCE

Poverty and trauma are all too common in America’s schools. What's rare is an opportunity for educators to sit and absorb first-hand from a former at-risk student who dropped out, endured a mother abusing drugs, absent father, and learning disability.  In this engaging session participants will unlearn perceived fallacies about students from poverty. One thing more important than what you teach is who you teach. Knowing and understanding your students emotionally can yield tremendous relational dividends. Trauma occurring in the early years can have a substantial impact on an adolescent's social-emotional development, academic performance, and behavior. This session will provide necessary knowledge to become a trauma-responsive educator and empower students healing from trauma. 50% of any interaction with a student is you. Students cannot learn effectively when they are burdened by the effects of trauma and poverty.  Craig’s trademark slogan, GED to PHD is a concrete paradigm that educators should never give up on any student.

Oftentimes objectives are two things to educators: wallpaper or a compliance checkbox on lesson or unit plans. Objectives can be and are so much more though. This session was developed to truly understand the meaning, difference and importance of Content and Language Objectives in every lesson, mastering writing Objectives, and most of all how to use them with students and utilize them as sheltered instruction strategies and a best practice to assure triangular alignment in lesson design. Participants will walk away knowing how to easily put these skills into immediate practice.

As the world is almost a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century, it is time for us to make sure we are preparing our students for their exciting futures.  We need to provide our students with authentic, engaging opportunities to help them gain skills they will need as the innovators of tomorrow.  In this session, you will hopefully feel encouraged and see examples of this kind of learning as we get our students ready not only "for next year" but for a lifelong commitment to learning, innovation, and world-changing!

Why does it always have to be about what they do wrong? Why can’t it be about what they do RIGHT? These two questions transformed a leader, energized a team, and drove a school to a BIG SHIFT in culture and climate. We know that school culture is an essential element in the social and emotional well-being of students but often SEL and school culture are disconnected. This session will help you find your school’s critical 411, energize and streamline your social emotional learning efforts, and propel you to leaving an impactful legacy. Come join Darrin and get YOUR school’s culture rolling down the Road to Awesome.

The #Edtech Throwdown features educational technology (#edtech) that can be used in remote, hybrid, and in-person classrooms for all types of learners!  Eric and Nick take turns introducing edtech tools and activity templates for the classroom!  The attendees will have a chance to vote on the person who presented the best tools!

Discover the magic that happens when text and doodles unite in the form of sketchnoting! In this interactive session, I will share a powerful form of visual note taking that will help students connect, retain, and focus on the information they are learning. Come away with an understanding of the what, why, and how of sketchnoting as well as many strategies and fun doodle challenges you can use immediately with your students.

What is Student Engagement? Are your kids engaged, motivated and excited about learning?  In this session you will leave having a plethora of ideas to keep our kids engaged, motivated and wanting MORE!  I will share strategies/ideas on how to  build a classroom filled with positivity, encouragement and excitement for learning.  We will be discussing various tech tools, making learning more of an experience, and more.  These ideas are not only for our face to face learners but our hybrid or virtual learners too. The more our kids are engaged the more motivation kids will have to participate in class, enjoy achieving their own learning goals, Are more likely to persist through challenges in learning & feel intrinsically motivated to gain new and deeper understanding. Let's want all of our kids to enjoy school and get excited about learning! 

In this interactive session, you will learn realistic, manageable and proactive strategies based in positive psychology that will help us achieve work/life satisfaction as we navigate this unique time of teaching. These small and manageable shifts, practiced over time, will help us teach happier, parent happier, partner happier, work happier, and increase our overall happiness and well-being.